Graphic Novel Review: THE WALKING DEAD: SURVIVOR’S GUIDE

The popularity of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and television show just keeps growing and growing and it’s no surprise that at 100 issues (and still growing) the comic book series as had many characters come and go and it is with this new graphic novel The Walking Dead: Survivor’s Guide that Kirkman and company set the record straight with every character that has appeared in the ongoing series thus far.  Like most “Who’s Who” tomes there is nothing here that readers will not have seen before except the fact that these types of books are usually reserved for super-hero and major comic book publishers and not a book with normal people and zombies.

Along for the ride contributing to this book are Tim Daniel (who helped with book design and assisting Kirkman on the writing of the book), Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn (on art duties), and Sina Grace (who edits).  All these peoples’ talents are tested as you may think this type of book is easy to put together but is in fact some of the hardest to do.  Fans know these characters inside and out and fact checking every little bit of info is a must because one mistake will turn away your reader. 

A lot of the entries present each character and a brief look at their history and how they have affected or been affected by events in the story.  Kirkman is smart to list everyone’s first appearance (and final appearance) as well as how they may have died or where they are in the current storyline.  Major characters are given more pages in the book but all characters are given at least one page (and there are a lot of characters as the series have no problem killing off its cast of characters).  For me, the book reminded me of characters who have long since passed but still may have an effect on characters still alive.

If there is anything missing from the book it is a table of contents and/or an appendix that lists the characters but this is a small gripe on my part.  The only other fault is that the characters are only (for the most part) listed by the first names but then again Kirkman rarely ever reveals last names of his characters but I think that characters whose name have been revealed should also be revealed here (the only way a reader will know the character’s last name is by reading the entry for the character itself which is where Kirkman sometimes lists it).

This is a must have for the fans of the series who want to know every facet of the series.